Adding a wave to a three body problem

I currently have a three body problem where the positions, P, of all 3 bodies are stored in one 3x3 matrix. I would like to add a 4th item, a wave, to my model.

I have tried adding it to this array however, due to the wave being an array in itself this won't generate the range in the y axis that I need to make calculations.

Is there a way I can inbed a array into my position matrix or are there any other solutions I could consider?

%current position matrix

P = [ 0 0 0

5 0 0

2.5 4.330 0];

%ideal position matrix (where x= -5,5)

P = [ 0 0 0

5 0 0

2.5 4.330 0

x -10 0];

Answer 1

[Maneet Kaur Bagga]

Hi James,

According to the MATLAB documentation,

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/valid-combinations-of-unlike-classes.html

It is generally not feasible for the elements of a matrix(2D array) to be matrices themselves. Matrix in MATLAB contain homogeneous data. However, an alternative approach could be using a cell array to transform the current position matrix into an ideal position matrix by referring to the code below:

P = cell(4,3);
P = {0 0 0;5 0 0;2.5 4.330 0;[-5,5] 10 0}

P = 4×3 cell array
    {[     0]}    {[     0]}    {[0]}
    {[     5]}    {[     0]}    {[0]}
    {[2.5000]}    {[4.3300]}    {[0]}
    {[  -5 5]}    {[    10]}    {[0]}

Please refer to the following cell array documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/cell.html

Hope this helps!

Thank You

Maneet Bagga